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A long, long time ago in the
history of the Internet (the late 1990’s), there was a period known as the
‘Browser Wars’. This was a time marked
by a fierce battle between two software companies: Microsoft with its Internet
Explorer browser and Netscape with its browser, Netscape Navigator. Since over 80% of all Internet users today
use Internet Explorer to surf the web, you can guess who won. But over the past couple of years Microsoft’s
dominance of the web-browsing Internet is being challenged, and this time it
may not emerge as the clear winner.
There are a number of free alternatives that provide a much better
Internet experience. We will discuss a couple of them this week, along with
some reasons why you may want to switch.
Now, for clarification: a ‘Web Browser’ is the software you use to view
web pages such as MikeBryant.com.
The first, and by far the
most popular, competitor to Internet Explorer is a web browser called
Firefox. The Firefox project grew out of
the ashes of Netscape and has emerged to be a truly wonderful browser. With Firefox, you can install any number of
‘themes’ or ‘skins’ to make the browser look anyway you wish. Instead of Internet Explorer’s simple blue
and gray color scheme, you can, for example, have a pink window with flower
icons. Or maybe you would like a black
window with skulls and crossbones for icons.
Whatever you want, there are tons of free skins you can download and
use. Firefox also has built-in search,
so if you want to do a Google search for something, just type in the text of
your search and hit the enter key. No
problems, nice and simple. You can even
download and install ‘plug-ins’, which are small programs that further enhance
the user’s experience, making complex tasks as simple as a mouse click. The absolute coolest feature of the Firefox
browser, in my opinion, is that you can open multiple web pages within the same
browser window. Each page is displayed
in a separate tab, clicking that page’s tab will show the page. Compare that to Internet Explorer’s
alternative of having a bunch of different windows cluttering the screen and I
think you will agree that this is simply an awesome feature. The Firefox browser is free to download and
use. You can get it at www.Mozilla.com.
One other competitor to
Internet Explorer is a browser named Opera.
This is also a free download from Opera.com. Opera has many of the same features as
Firefox, including multiple skins, one click searching and tabbed
browsing. One really neat feature that
Opera offers is the optional and free Voice package. With this installed and a microphone attached
to your computer, you can simply speak your commands and Opera will obey. You can surf the net without a keyboard just
by telling the browser what page you want to view. And, if you would rather hear the page
instead of viewing it, Opera will do that as well—reading the words to you
through your computer’s speakers. Opera
is not yet a very popular browser, but it is definitely an up-and-coming
software program. There is speculation
that Google may purchase the Opera browser.
If that happens, expect to hear a lot more about this wonderful software
tool.
Now, for the Cool Site of the
Week... This week’s featured site is Snopes.com. Ever get those emails informing you that some
company has a policy against using the term ‘Merry Christmas’ and asking you to
boycott that company? Ever hear that
story about the Christmas play where the Innkeeper suddenly went out of
character and cussed Joseph out? Did you
hear the one about the ghost of a dead boy showing up in two scenes of the move
Three Men and a Baby? If you would like to know whether these and
other urban legends are true, go to Snopes.com.
This site has an amazing list of myths and legends and tells you, with
research and facts to back it up, whether each one is true, partially true or a
complete falsehood.
As always, if you have any
questions or suggestions for future articles, please email me at
mike@MikeBryant.com.
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